Friday will be the last day for the hump at Norfolk Southern’s (NYSE: NSC) Enola yard in Pennsylvania.
Instead of using the hump, Norfolk Southern (NS) will sort and attach railcars to outbound trains using flat switching.
A hump yard, or classification yard, is where trains are divided and sorted according to their destinations using a hill or “hump” to connect cars. Flat switching also involves dividing and sorting railcars, but instead of using gravity and hills to connect cars, locomotives are used to create trains.
NS says the change will “shorten the amount of time a rail car waits to leave the yard for its destination, improving Norfolk Southern’s service to its customers.”
The yard’s diesel shop won’t be affected by the change, although a “limited number of jobs at the site” could be impacted, NS said. The Enola yard is one of NS’ three largest hubs in the Harrisburg area.
Earlier this year, NS converted to flat switching at the Bellevue yard in Ohio, idling the hump there.
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